SOLIDWORKS Loft Bend Problems and Solutions

If I were to compare the SOLIDWORKS Sheet Metal module with an Opera Company and you (the SOLIDWORKS user) with the director, then the Loft Bend would be a wanna-be diva; a spectacular feature with lots of potential but also very temperamental.

The Loft Bend is unique among all the Sheet Metal features and, because of that, thinks very highly of herself. Her contract has to be “just so” in order to even consider appearing on the scene. For example:

• She will sing in 2 acts only (2 sketch planes), no more no less.
• She will wear only 2 dresses with hip high side slits (2 open sketches)

She will create a scandal if, after her first performance, critical reviews are less than stellar. Most times, if you ask her to change anything at all, she will throw ketchup and mustard (read errors and warnings in the feature tree) over herself and some of her colleagues. She seems to hate in particular the baritone (the Flat Pattern), her most hard working colleague,  and does not miss any opportunity to put him down.

There are very few people who can manage the Loft Bend effectively and most of them went through intensive training from Javelin.

Only the other day, a very distinguished director, Marcel Derks from Nexgen Municipal, was frustrated over his own Prima Donna. Apparently he just wanted to trim a bit the sides of the costume and the Loft Bend declared she does not want to sing anymore with the Flat Pattern. Marcel asked us to talk to her and see if we can reach an agreement.

We did talk to both his Loft Bend and Flat Pattern and even recorded the discussion. As you will see in this video, we separated their performances in two different parts of the scene (Configurations), leaving just the Mezzo Soprano, the Derived Sketch as the parametric link between the 2 stars of the show.